Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Gina's Fancy S'mores

I promised Gina to do justice to her creation this time in picture posting, especially after Baked Alaska Gate. I also shot a video (which is really just Gina torching the marshmallow and me zooming in and out of the ingredients, but you do get to see Gizmo, Gina's adorable Shitzu-Lhasa Aphsa mix).

Gina got the idea of making these sugar-coated marshmallow s'mores after making s'mores with some peeps leftover from Easter. Here, with regular marshmallows, she has dampened them slightly with water and rolled them in granulated sugar.

Instead of graham crackers, Gina used these Swedish cookies that she got from Ikea (she says that you can find them in most supermarkets). I liked Anna's Almond Cinnamon Thins better than the traditional graham crackers. The cookies were thin and crunchy, which provided a nice textural contrast to the soft marshmallow. Also, it seemed like the cookies had some granulated sugar within it, complementing the sugar that was coating the marshmallow.

We had a second round of s'mores using fancier, dark chocolate, but all agreed that Hershey's milk chocolate was better, in taste and meltiness (make sure to get the small, regular bar; one time I tried using a Hershey's king size bar, and the chocolate bar was too thick for the s'more).

Gina used her crème bruléetorch to toast the marshmallow, but I'm sure it would work over a campfire as well. Check out that flame!

So, what is the final verdict? Before I tried Gina's s'mores, I was torn. In some ways, I'm a purist when it comes to food classics, and I think when people try to fancify the recipes, they can often ruin a good thing. Other times, though, it can really open up new avenues in taste. So, while Gina's s'more doesn't quite resemble the picture below, I am glad, because I think it may even be better. Brava!

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What's with the name?

"Do you want me to make you a lunchbox?" That's what my mom said after dinner every night. It sounds so strange. Shouldn't she say, "Do you want me to pack you a lunch?" But, English is not my mom's first language. And, that didn't stop me from enjoying leftovers the next day in my neatly packed Tupperware container.

My mom's weird sentence still tickles me to this day and her gesture of making me a lunchbox (even into my early 20's!) also made me feel very taken care of.

I hope that this blog will give you information about little treasures (be it restaurants or recipes) I have found.